1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus, especially, the mechanical construction thereof, for an electronic musical instrument and other electronic or electrical apparatuses, and to an electronic musical instrument, especially, an electronic musical instrument for generating an electronic tone corresponding to a bowed instrument, which uses the control apparatus as an input apparatus for controlling electronic tone generation parameter.
2. Prior Art
In an electronic apparatus, especially, in an electronic musical instrument, an input for controlling the operation thereof is made from a switch operation or a key depression and release operation on a keyboard. Therefore, the keyboard or switches on an operation panel constitute an input apparatus.
A conventional input apparatus comprising a keyboard, push buttons, or various switches has separate and independent operation sections, resulting in poor operability or operation feeling, or causing operation errors.
An electronic musical instrument which generates bowed instrument tones such as violin tones comprises a physical sound source for generating an electronic tone obtained by physically approximating a mechanical vibration of a string in correspondence with a movement of a fricative contact between the string and a bow. In such an electronic musical instrument, performance function parameters such as a bow pressure upon pressing of a string of a bowed instrument, a bow velocity, a bow position, and the like are input from a keyboard consisting of a plurality of keys. More specifically, a key code representing a scale, a magnitude of a tone, its length, and the like are input by key depression or release touches or timings on the keyboard, and operations of other switches on the keyboard.
Since the conventional electronic musical instrument controls a performance function upon key depression/release operations on the keyboard, it suffers from a quite different performance feeling although it can generate a performance tone approximate to that of a bowed instrument which generates a musical tone by means of a bow and strings. For this reason, a demand has arisen for an electronic musical instrument which can enjoy a performance state similar to that of a bowed instrument such as a violin and be played just like an acoustic instrument.